On your road to success as a screenwriter, you’re going to have to convince a lot of people that what you’re doing is worthwhile. The same is true for almost any other profession.
If you're a screenwriter, how you speak to agents, financiers, actors, studio or network people and even how you speak to yourself can make a big difference to the results you get.
Nick Kemp is a Neuro Linguistic Programming trainer who has worked in schools to help students and teachers be more effective. In an article published in the magazine ReSource he reveals a simple change in language that creates positive effects.
He noticed that in interviews with staff, many of them used phrases like "I’ll try to..." or "We'll aim to..." or "Hopefully..." or "All being well..."
All of these imply that failure is possible (perhaps even that it's likely). When he had them switch to definite statements like "I will..." it changed their thinking and their whole state in the classroom.
Listen to how you speak about things you are about to undertake, especially when dealing with agents, producers, actors, directors—anybody who may hire you to write a script or with whom you might collaborate. Do you use qualifiers that suggest you may not/will not succeed?
If you find it difficult to be aware of this as it goes on, try tape recording yourself for a few hours.
You might want to extend this to how you respond to questions like, "How are you?" or "How's it going?" Do you say (as I'm guilty of doing), "Not too bad"?
It would be better to reply, "Going well," or "Fine, thanks" --at least to those people who aren't actually interested in a factual account of our challenges (which is most people).
Switch to definite statements that presuppose success, and notice the difference in how you feel, how you carry out your work, and the level of interest you get from others.
